It’s been a long three days. Feels like a week. Halfway through Wednesday, I started feeling sick. I wasn’t surprised, since Michael and Bradley had both been sick and puked more than a few times this week. I took a short nap on my lunch break, and right when I was ready to go back to work, we got a phone call. Some guy had run across Traci’s dad near Ferron Reservoir (25 miles from the nearest pavement), where he’d gotten his truck and camp trailer stuck in the snow. Snow! So this guy drove to where he had service on his phone and called here. I was the only one with a truck who could help him out, so I let my manager know what was going on, and he said, “Get out of here and go help!” So I did.
Not surprisingly, by the time I got some gear packed (boots, gloves, granola bars, water, etc.), and grabbed her dad’s tire chains from his garage, and fueled up my truck, and drove all the way to Ferron, then hit the dirt road and hauled ass up to Ferron Reservoir, wouldn’t you know it–help had already come along. He wasn’t there anymore, and somehow he’d dropped his trailer off and taken another road back to town without passing me. Traci called me after I’d passed Skyline Drive and had cell service again to let me know that he was already halfway back to Price. Somebody had stopped for him and just happened to have a set of four tire chains that fit his tires. Just my luck.
After getting home, I just wanted to crash. I took a hot bath, puked, took some Nyquil, and went to bed. I woke up once after my fever broke and I was sweating profusely, then I tossed and turned all night after that.
Yesterday, I’d already scheduled to take the day off from work so Traci and I could drive to Provo for some Xmas shopping, and even though I wasn’t feeling great, we went anyway–I didn’t want to waste my vacation day. It didn’t turn out too badly, except that we got a really late start. I ate the first meal I’d had in the past 29 hours at Sconecutter–at least I picked a good place to eat. We bought a treadmill at Sears, and even though the trunk in the Taurus is pretty cavernous (you can fit at least three or four adults in there), the treadmill box wouldn’t fit. Literally, all I needed was another inch or two! As much as I hate driving, we ended up driving home with an empty trunk, and got back after dark. Then I had to make up the three hours of work that I missed on Wednesday, but it passed quickly because not only was I busy, but Traci stayed at her mom’s with the kids for a bit.
When I got off work today, I scooped Michael up and we headed out the door for another trip to Provo, this time in the truck so we could pick up the treadmill. But the truck wouldn’t start. The starter turned over, very slowly at first, then it stopped turning altogether. I gave it a jump start with the Taurus, but that was after having to read the damn owner’s manual to figure out which battery to connect the jumper cables to! I just hoped that if I didn’t turn the truck off until we got home again that I’d be safe. Michael took a pretty long nap on the way to Provo, and I wish I could have done the same. We got stopped for 25 minutes because of an accident that blocked both lanes of travel at the top of Price Canyon. We made it to Sears, got the treadmill, and headed home. We stopped at the Tucker rest area so Michael could pee in the bushes (because there was a group of about 20 boy scouts using the restrooms there), then we found a geocache that I’ve been wanting to find for awhile. I took a chance and shut the truck down, and luckily it started right up when we were ready to leave.
And now that I’m home, I can finally relax a bit. Well, except that I’ve got to find out what’s wrong with my truck. The Ford dealer is probably best equipped to track down the problem quickly, but they’re also the best equipped to rape me up the asshole (you know how those dealers are, always raping assholes such as myself). I think I’ll give this one a stab on my own, though. I can at least rule out things like corroded battery cables or a short that’s causing a drain. If I can’t find anything like that, I’ll probably take it to a parts store for a battery/alternator test, but from what I’ve heard, even those aren’t always conclusive (but they’re free!).